Au Revoir

Today I said goodbye to Paris by hanging out in my favorite neighborhood, the Marais and having one of my favorite Parisian meals, falafel. Then for dessert I went to a candy store and picked up some macarons. My last days here have largely revolved around eating all matter of French food I can get my hands on.

The past four months of my life have really been an amazing and unforgettable experience and this would probably be the time when I would get into writing a long-winded post about all of the things I learned and how special it was, but I've never been a long-winded kind of person, so I'll just say this: Paris, I love you, and you haven't seen the last of me!

The best baguette in Paris

I just couldn't leave without tasting the baguette that won Le Grand Prix de la Baguette de la Ville de Paris (only the French would have an official award for achievement in baguette making). So this morning I made the trek all the way across the city to the 18th arrondissement to Boulangerie Mauvieux, recipient of this year's honor. I picked up a still-warm baguette de tradition and brought it for a final picnic brunch on the Champ de Mars (my roommate Katie left today :( ). So was it truly the best baguette in Paris? I've never been one to discriminate when it comes to bread in any form, but I will say that with its crispy crunchy crust and its soft airy innards, this was definitely one of the best I've had. Sorry I didn't take a picture of it!

The last few days...

With my last week in Paris I'm trying to do everything I can that is French. Yesterday, a brocante (French antique market) popped up outside our apartment. After wandering around a bit we sat down at one of our favorite neighborhood cafes for a coffee and some good old-fashioned Parisian people-watching.

That one time I almost got stranded in Normandy

For our last trip out of Paris, we decided to go on a day trip to Normandy. We had our train tickets from Paris and back, but other than that we really didn't have anything planned out. We got a train from the city of Caen to Bayeux (I realize now that we could have gotten a train straight from Paris to Bayeux, but you live and you learn I suppose) and then we took a bus to the American Cemetery and Omaha Beach. Now before you go thinking we are totally unorganized and incompetent, I'll have you know that we looked up all the bus and train times and we knew when we had to get the last bus back to Bayeux (in order to get the last train back to Caen, to get the last train back to Paris). Unfortunately, after walking along the beach a ways, instead of turning back and going back the way we came, we decided that it would be a good idea to try and make some kind of loop to get back to the bus stop at the cemetery, which happened to be a little further away than we thought. Long story short, some incorrect directions, a different bus stop where the bus stopped running to an hour ago, some frantic power walking along unknown roads, some failed attempts to flag down passing cars, lots of watch-checking, eventual resignation to defeat, a turned corner and a spotted bus stop, and some hysterical running later, we got to the bus stop just minutes before the last bus came, and made it safely back to Paris in time to get some falafel.

 (exasperation)

This, by the way, was after a friend of ours went on a day trip to Normandy two weeks ago and actually did get stranded and had to spend the night there. You might think we would learn from her experience and plan ahead better. Of course not!

 Now, despite that little snafu, the American Cemetery and the beach were beautiful, sobering, and very cool indeed.

Katie's grandfather was one of the soldiers that landed on the beach. 

It was so peaceful, it was hard to imagine what it was like there 68 years ago, almost to the day.

Sainte-Chapelle

 I finally went to Sainte-Chapelle today!

 And then cheese for dinner. What more could you ask for?

Step 1 : go to La Fermette, a fromagerie on rue Motorgueil where you can buy a plate of assorted cheeses, preferably ones you don't recognize, because it's always best to try new things, right?

Step 2 : go to your local boulangerie and buy a fresh baguette

Step 3 : arrange your cheese on a board along with whatever accouterments you might have on hand (in our case, cherry tomatoes, pear, and figs)

Step 4 : pop open a bottle of wine and offer your expert opinion on each cheese

Don't worry, I'm still alive!

I know I've been slacking on the blogging front, and I'm sorry! I just haven't found the time, especially with finals this week. My time here is winding down! I'm going to try and do lots of cool stuff and I'll be sure to bring my camera. In the meantime enjoy this picture of a kitten.

 Last weekend we went on a day trip to Giverny, which is where Monet's home and famous garden are. I just took a lot of pictures of flowers:

It would be a really tough call, but if I absolutely had to choose which place I went on spring break was my favorite, I would VERY tentatively say that it was...

Or is it Luzern?? I like Lucerne because it seems like the French way of saying it.

The city is right on Lake Lucerne and it's surrounded by beautiful alps. Eating out in Switzerland is ridiculously expensive so for all of our meals we went to the supermarket down the street from our hostel and bought food for picnicking. This is the view from the spot where we ate lunch a few times. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

I don't know much (i.e. nothing) about Swiss history, but this Lion Monument is, according to Wikipedia:

"a sculpture in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. The American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."

Interesting, no?

Many of the buildings in the city are painted with frescoes.

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On our first day we decided we wanted to go for a hike in the alps, so we went to the farmer's market in the morning and picked up some Swiss bread and cheese and some fruit and we set out to Mount Pilatus.

You could pay something like 50 francs to ride the gondola up to the top, but why on Earth would anyone want to do that?

One of the things that I liked so much about Switzerland were the wide expanses of lush green fields dotted with yellow flowers and trees with white blossoms against the blue sky (the pictures I took don't come close to doing it justice)

Now, I'm not going to lie, this hike was HARD. The beginning was a pretty easy walk through some fields, but then it started going up. And by up I mean like a 45 degree angle or steeper for almost the entire way. I can understand why most tourists take the gondola. However, we wanted to be like those healthy, healthy Swiss folk and do some hard-core hiking. Plus it made the delicious picnic and the view of the mountain we got all the more rewarding.

In keeping with the theme of being active, the next day we rented pedal boats and went out on Lake Lucerne and then we rented bikes and rode around town all day 

We stopped at a field of flowers and did some obligatory frolicking

On our last night we had planned on going out for fondue, but instead of paying 25 francs each to eat just bread and cheese, we bought fondue cheese at the supermarket and made it in the hostel kitchen, which turned out to be so much better because in addition to bread we also bought fruits and vegetables to dip. I can't even tell you how good pear dipped in cheese is.

I don't really know what exactly it was about Switzerland that I loved so much. Part of it was definitely the landscape, but I also feel like the people there have such a good outlook on life. Example: lots of people ride bikes, and we noticed that it's not uncommon for people to leave their bikes unlocked! Something like that could never happen in the US. It probably has something to do with the fact that they have never been in a state of war since 1815. That, and there's also something to be said about a people who are so active and shop at supermarkets full of health food, and yet still value bread dipped in cheese and amazing chocolates.

Switzerland, you will be seeing me again!